Google slammed by UK advertisers over failure to throttle ads on extremist content

Google has taken severe flak from UK advertisers for its failure to fully throttle ad misplacement across YouTube and its display ad network. A number of brands, including the UK government and Channel 4, along with agency Havas UK, pulled advertising off Google, along with a number of multinational brands, like McDonald's.

Although the issue of brand safety is not new, it  moved into the public domain, thanks to an article in The Times last month, and a barrage of criticism in the advertising industry.

''It is indefensible,'' said the chief operating officer of a major brand, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to DigiDay. ''Google has the talent and can afford to fix it, so why haven't they bothered? Only a fraction of their ad revenue can derive from ad misplacement; there is absolutely no reason for them not to have a fail-safe.''

Though such concerns had earlier been brushed off by Google with its standard: ''we're working on it'' response, the UK boycott prompted swifter action, and on Monday night, Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler wrote in a blog post: ''In the coming days and months, we're introducing new tools for advertisers to more easily and consistently manage where their ads appear across YouTube and the web.''

Google's public apology over placement of advertising next to extremist material came only after it was ''read the riot act'' at a Whitehall summit last Friday, it had emerged.

Google executives are expected to meet Cabinet Office ministers again this week, and set out further action to strengthen their advertising policies and ensure government ads did not appear next to YouTube videos featuring US white supremacists or banned Islamist hate preachers.